Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle Unite On Album

Two singular voices among modern-day troubadours, Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle, have announced the imminent arrival of a new album together, which they’ll support with live dates. Colvin & Earle, produced by the revered American musician Buddy Miller, will be released on 10 June on Fantasy Records.

The album is produced by the Grammy-winning, in-demand producer and artist Buddy Miller. The lead track, ‘You’re Right, I’m Wrong,’ is being premiered exclusively by Rolling Stone Country from today (1 April), and you can hear it here.

The two American singer-songwriters started their mutual appreciation on the night they met, nearly 30 years ago. Earle was playing a show at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts, for which Colvin was invited to open with a solo acoustic set. They met only briefly backstage, but each made a distinct impression on the other.

“I was knocked out with her,” Earle remembers. “She was a real live folk singer.” Colvin says: “I was a big fan—still am—and I was thrilled I got to meet him. Steve’s just brilliant. He’s a very simple writer in an extremely profound way. I love his singing and his songwriting, he’s just got the whole package.”

After occasional subsequent collaborations, fast forward to 2014, when the duo combined for the sellout Songs and Stories, Together Onstage tour. They seized the momentum to go into the studio with Miller to make the new album, which features such revered musicians as guitarist Richard Bennett (Neil Diamond, Mark Knopfler, and a veteran of Earle’s memorable 1986 debut, Guitar Town); drummer Fred Eltringham (Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves), and bassist Chris Wood (of Medeski Martin & Wood).

Other new songs on the album include ‘Tell Moses,’ ‘Happy & Free’ and ‘The Way That We Do.’ There are four covers, includign versions of the Rolling Stones‘ ‘Ruby Tuesday’ and the Nashville Teens’ ‘Tobacco Road.’